Serena and Matt discuss the labor complaint filed by players in the Pac-12 in which they seek to be recognized as employees, which could reshape college sports as we know them. We also touch on the Juwan Howard situation and suspension.
- The Juwan thing is unfortunate
- Neither of us thinks he should have been fired, but it also wouldn't have been unreasonable for him to be fired
- The punishments mostly make sense and seem fair
- It can't happen again
- The NLRB Labor Complaint
- This has the power to reshape college sports as we know them
- College players want to be regarded as employees entitled to wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act
- The inclusion of UCLA in the suit is a way of testing the waters on jurisdiction because the NLRB usually only has jurisdiction over private employers
- Discussing the feasibility of the joint-employer theory
- Neither one of us wants to see college sports become full of 24 year olds who flamed out of the NFL or NBA - there's something magical about knowing these kids are in your classes and "just like you"
- Do any of the benefits college athletes currently receive count as wages? There's a good argument that room and board do, but perhaps not tuition
- What happens if they win?
- Nonrevenue sports could disappear or become club sports
- Maybe not much changes? It might depend a lot on what the players bargain for
- What of women's sports? There are some Title IX implications here
- Could they adopt a grad student model?
- Might Congress just change the law to exempt college athletes from the FLSA?
- We could talk about this for 1000000 years and not assess all of the possible outcomes, so we have to wait and see
WVU Law Review Article: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6307&context=wvlr
